10 - To Love a Doll
Tempo gazed on the blank paper. "Love." She surely loved Cadance! That was ironclad in its sureness. She took hold of that feeling and tried to play a quick swap, putting BlueBlood's smiling face where Cadance's radiance once would.
She felt... something different, but it was a feeling. "Hello, little prince." She imagined leaning in over the little imagined prince. "Do you wish to kiss me?" The little prince nodded.
"I would... Like that."
Tempo started back, breathing a little harder, despite not needing any air. "Love..."
She smiled gently and floated a quill over in her magic. "To gaze on you," she spoke as she wrote, feeling she was in the right place to really begin. "Stirs feelings I once had no name for..."
She folded her poem gently with a swipe of her hoof and pressed her seal to keep it shut beneath warmed wax. "I hope he likes it." That it mattered, to her, if he did felt like another mark in his favor.
"Sis!" Cadance burst in through the door. "Are you... You already sealed it?! I wanted to see it!" But when Tempo reached to break the seal, Cadance tackled her to stop it. "No! He'll see if you break that. It's too late. Off to that star-eyed colt it goes." She grinned like a foal herself. "I'll just have to hear it when he opens it."
Tempo let out an "oof!" as her enthusiastic sister tackled her, barely saving the freshly penned poem from being prematurely opened. She flushed, clutching the folded parchment tightly.
"Yes well...I suppose you shall hear his reaction soon enough," she murmured, smoothing a self-conscious hoof over her braided mane. Strange, to feel suddenly shy about something crafted in private now that it was destined for another's eyes.
Cadance rolled off her sister, grinning ear to ear. "Oh I just know he's going to absolutely adore it! However much or little it says."
She playfully elbowed Tempo's side. "Because it came straight from my sister's heart for him. That alone makes it precious!"
Tempo managed a tremulous smile, buoyed by her support as always. Still, nerves and anticipation roiled within at the thought of baring even this small piece of vulnerability.
"I hope the silly prince agrees with such generous sentiments..." She trailed off as the royal messenger arrived to collect any outgoing letters. With a last deep breath, she passed her poem parcel over. No going back now.
She endured Cadance's energetic play-by-play speculation about Blueblood's reaction for the next hour until a familiar regal knock came at their chamber door. Tempo shot upright, heart suddenly thrumming.
There he stood, expertly groomed as ever, her letter held gently in one hoof. But his eyes shone with unrestrained awe and delight that took her breath away.
"Tempo..." He stepped forward reverently. "However can mere words express the joy these earnest lines stirred in me?"
As he fondly recited a stanza, tears suddenly pricked Tempo's vision. Not from the words themselves - but from realizing no one had ever gazed on even a small piece of her inner self with such tender appreciation. "Do you speak truly?"
Blueblood looked genuinely baffled. "To pen, in deceit? A horrible notion! Never!" He turned up his nose at the very concept being put before him. "When I write poetry, know that I can never be speaking more truthfully. That is why I prefer it. If I am to gush such tremendous... notions... in what way better?" He came at her, hooves wide, and she allowed him to embrace her, to press close in warm exchange a moment. "Now, your sister was quite clear." He took a step back. "You have learned my language, marvelously, I will add! You speak the language of my love and I would only ask that you continue to whisper it gentle, to send me into soft palpitations of delight... But to allow only that would make me a terrible partner."
Tempo stepped off her chair, working around Blueblood. "You have been an acceptable partner. What do you mean?"
"I mean." He turned to keep her in front of himself. "It's my turn to learn your language, dearest mare. How can I tell you that I love you in a way that will ring truest in your ears. You know my weakness, but I would know yours, so we can leave the other a pile of satisfied pony on command."
Tempo flicked both ears against her head with a faint metal tink. "I see... I do not see. This..." She pointed to her love letter, still held in Blueblood's magic. "That was my first try. I don't know my own love language."
"Oh." Blueblood inclined his head. "Well, that just won't do. I'll just have to be adventurous!"
Tempo blinked at that. "What do you mean?"
"I'll have to try different things. And you'll inform me as I grow closer or further away. Today! Dinner, my treat. Just us, alone, some fine wine... How does that sound?"
Tempo considered Blueblood's suggestion, touched by his earnest desire to learn how best to express his affections. She offered him a small, hesitant smile.
"Dinner alone together sounds lovely," she replied gently. "We can continue our conversations in a more intimate setting, without pressures or distractions. And..."
She dared reach out to brush his hoof, still unused to initiating such contact herself. "I would very much like for us to keep understanding each other better. To know each other's hearts."
Tempo met his gaze softly, sincerely. "I may still be learning my own language of love. But exploring that together feels...right, in ways I cannot yet fully voice." She gave his hoof a tender squeeze. "I only know my soul feels less tangled with you near."
Blueblood's eyes shone at her hushed admission, and he raised her hoof to his lips. "Then let our hearts be the sweetest poetry to serenade one another," he murmured against her skin.
Tempo's nerves dissolved into a blossoming glow inside at his touch. Perhaps between two souls still discovering themselves, they might forge something quietly extraordinary all the same...
She graced him with a fuller smile now. "Well said, my prince. Shall we?"
So it was that the two began exploring what love languages would reach Tempo best. Private intimate affairs worked well, but the presence of food and drink didn't specifically help. She didn't eat, in the end. But they did learn something. She was warmed in real ways by the effort her lover put in to make it happen.
When she learned he had actually cooked the food himself, it meant the world to her, even if she would never actually eat it.
Later, when he brought up things she had only mentioned once or twice, she felt her heart, or whatever it was she had in there, quicken. To know he loved her enough to dedicate such things to memory so quickly, surely part of her love language.
She threw herself on the bed next to her sister. "Did you go through this with yours?"
"Yes, actually." Cadance giggled with memories. "He loves me, but that doesn't help me say I love him. To say that... he loves to hear it, directly. I love you. Three words, nice and blunt, said just as bluntly. It means so much... That, and a new comic from a series I know he's interested in. The better my guess, the more he's squealing."
Tempo laughed at the mental image of it. "That sounds true to him. I'm still learning myself." She rolled over onto her back. "It's exciting, but I'm a little nervous... but he's so patient... Blueblood really loves me."
"Aw." Cadance nestled with her sister. "That's the important part, and that you two are working so diligently for each other. Is... Has he really shown he's alright with you as you are?"
"As I am?"
Cadance perked an ear. "Sister, dear, no offense, but you are a doll." She tickled at her sister's sides gently. "Which is perfectly fine for a sister, but for a lover, there are a number of things you just don't do. And I'm not just speaking of the practical matter of heirs."
Tempo blinked slowly as Cadance's words sank in. Her sister was right - as accepting as Blueblood was, he must surely realize by now that she could never fully reciprocate certain types of more intimate physical affection. Expectations around what it meant to be lovers likely looked starkly different from his past rendezvous compared to a partner like herself...
She chewed her lip, anxiety creeping back in. "Do you...do you think he has doubts or regrets now but hides them to spare my feelings?" she asked softly. "Surely he must miss things we can never share..."
Cadance quickly backtracked, pulling Tempo into a fierce hug. "No no, I'm certain he's utterly sincere in his devotion, sis! Please don't misunderstand." She squeezed tighter. "That colt is clearly over the moon for you just as you are."
Tempo let herself be comforted by her sister's embrace, the familiar scent soothing her nerves. "I just worry...that one day he may wake up wishing for a real mare at his side instead of a doll playing pretend," she admitted quietly.
Cadance gently bumped their horns together. "All I meant to say is, make sure you check in about any needs going unmet for him too, not just your own." She smiled softly. "Our dear prince would walk through fire for your happiness. But the path to mutual fulfillment takes compromise on both sides..."
She nuzzled Tempo's cheek. "Just talk openly with each other, like you have been. That's the key to any lasting love."
Tempo sighed, letting herself relax again. Cadance always knew just what to say. "You're right, of course..." She managed a small smile. "I suppose I'm still learning how relationships and indeed my own heart work. But with Blueblood, somehow fumbling through it together feels comforting..."
Cadance stood on the bed suddenly, wings flaring. "Good, now, just as we start to get comfortable... graduation is coming up! Shining says he got accepted to the guard, of all things. Can you imagine it, Shining, a guard?"
Tempo blinked at the very idea. "No, I cannot." But she smiled as she sat up. "I wish him well. Sister, do you have plans for after graduation?"
"Stay at Aunt Tia's side." She waved off in that direction. "Until she has a need for me. Being a little princess means my life's pretty well ordained, and in her hooves. Not that I'm worried about those hooves. Auntie's one of the best."
Tempo smiled with memories of that kind mare. "I can think of far worse. But what of me?" She curled a hoof at herself. "Am I a princess? Should I also wait? I don't.... want to leave you, sister... I am happy at your side."
Cadance's sunny grin softened as she reached to run an affectionate hoof through Tempo's neatly coiffed mane. "Oh Tempo, of course you'll stay here with me! I would be heartbroken without my favorite sister at my side."
She winked playfully before growing more thoughtful. "Although I suppose questions around your role and status should be formalized at some point..."
Cadance tapped her chin then brightened. "I know! We'll have Auntie Tia officially proclaim you a princess of Equestria too. Then none can question your rightful place here."
She twirled excitedly at the idea, wings fluttering. "Princess Tempo - ooh it has such a lovely ring! And think of all the royal duties we can share together."
Tempo smiled hesitantly back. "I admit the prospect sounds appealing..." To finally have her still uncertain standing solidified would help settle lingering doubts inside her. And getting to support Cadance's someday rule felt like the purpose she had been missing.
"But would Princess Celestia allow another alicorn princess so easily?" she worried, not wanting to overhope. "Surely questions would arise, nobles inquiring after my lineage and such..."
Cadance waved a dismissive hoof. "Let Auntie and I handle the politics! The ponies already love you." She hugged Tempo happily. "Soon it'll just make your place at my side official for all to see..."
Tempo let herself bask in her sibling's infectious optimism. Perhaps her future hadn't fully come into focus yet. But standing tall beside Cadance sounded like the best place to be no matter where destiny led...
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This is really sweet and all...but what about the cultists?
At this rate, who knows? Maybe we'll end up with the Pinnochio twist.
Let alone your ONLY sister?
Well, I caught upAnd I have to say, Dave, this is a dam good story. Not only is it well written, but its a unique concept. There are a ton of clone stories out there, but there are almost no homunculus or living doll stories. "The Mane Six get a Boyfriend by Jay David" Comes to mind. He wrote three of those "The Homunculus Boyfriend" stories. Then there is the story "Archimedes by Mr101".
Monk
"You had a therapist once, and she made you stop coming after you told her about your childhood. Apparently she just didn’t need that kind of negativity in her life." -amphetanon
11800228
Never read those, but glad you're enjoy this tale with us!
If Celestia can reshape her body to be older, I'd think she could reshape her body to be capable of adult activities. I think Celestia would be perfectly happy to assist and make such a change, without awkwardness even.
11800716
I'm not sure why 'if can change the appearance' equates to 'can make fully capable of reproduction'.
11800948
Not what I said. In those terms it's "can change her physical form" equating to itself. No reproduction ability, just the other equally important part of that and most relationships.
11802577
At what point did they even discuss that? She was very specific, she can't make an heir. Not being an M-rated story, they didn't dive too hard into what they would or would not do in the bedroom if the mood struck.
11802611
That's kind of a vital part of making an heir, and for the majority of people I know the more important concern in a long term relationship. Being not M rated means that can't be discussed explicitly but that doesn't mean it's not a concern, especially while openly concerned about heirs, at least I think so.
11800716
Hi there. Just because her doll body has been reshaped does that mean it is suddenly capable of reproduction.
There are two bio problems with that theory and one ethical concern.
Number one. Functional plumbing ,while not confirmed either way, I genuinely doubt Tempo has.
Number two. The doll body needs to produce eggs that way Tempo has a way of using the reproductive material given to her. It's going to be complicated to add, even with magic.
Number three, it would be extremely unfair if any offspring did happen. You'd have a half-doll that may grow and mature , while Tempo simply remains the exact same age for decades at a time. A forever unchanging figure.
Also she firmly stated she's not producing an heir. So yeah no kids are happening.
11800716
You know, there are humans who can't have sex for various reasons. They can still take care of their partners needs. I think David is beating that no intimacy drum a bit too hard. There are other ways to get your partners rocks off and I really don't think not having mare bits is as big a deal as he is making it out to be.
Monk
“Trust in your superiors. And soon enough, you will get what you deserve..." -JNKing
11817614
To be fair, it is a valid concern and it's something that will come up, so bringing it up now as opposed to later is good
I thought she doesnt have a heart?
11838979
She does not, but she can feel stressed out and startled.
Carnal lust is good to ignite fires but theirs is already burning strong, intimacy can be had even without sexual aspects, and we feel most who have moved past the honeymoon phase would realize that...